Wednesday, October 21, 2026

AIINEWS

Global intelligence on artificial intelligence and computing

You know the launch market is tough when satellite companies start building rockets

Source:Ars Technica•Eric Berger
06 November, 2026•1 min read
You know the launch market is tough when satellite companies start building rockets

Executive Briefing

Synthesized and verified with gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp

“There are optimistic plans for spaceflight, and then there are optimistic plans.”

Key Takeaways

  • 1.There are optimistic plans for spaceflight, and then there are optimistic plans.
  • 2.AST SpaceMobile is a Texas-based, publicly traded company building very large satellites to provide direct-to-cell communications on Earth.
  • 3.But it has been having trouble finding rides to space.

There are optimistic plans for spaceflight, and then there are optimistic plans. AST SpaceMobile is a Texas-based, publicly traded company building very large satellites to provide direct-to-cell communications on Earth. But it has been having trouble finding rides to space. So on Friday, AST announced that it is developing a medium-lift rocket, named Blacklift, which will have the capacity to lift 20 metric tons to low-Earth orbit. Oh, and the company said it would start launching commercially in late 2028. "The Blacklift rocket is the springboard to significantly expand our total addressable market, providing AST SpaceMobile with regular unconstrained access to orbit and providing for most favorable owner's economics in the industry," said Abel Avellan, founder, chairman, and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, in a news release. Read full article Comments

Attribution & Original Source

Synthesized and verified from Ars Technica. All copyrights and intellectual property belong to the original publication.

Visit Original Source
Share this intelligence report:

Related Dispatches

Ships loiter near subsea cables amid Iran's warnings to Trump
Ars Technica37 minutes ago

Ships loiter near subsea cables amid Iran's warnings to Trump

Several tanker ships linked to Iran have been loitering over subsea Internet cables in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz—a possible indication that the Iranian government is preparing to attack such undersea infrastructure in response to any renewed US and Israeli strikes. The movements of three sanctioned tankers and an Iranian fishing boat have been tracked near major undersea cables by the maritime intelligence firm Windward in...

1 min read1
Man unexpectedly recovers from a knife wound through his eye and brain
Ars Technica37 minutes ago

Man unexpectedly recovers from a knife wound through his eye and brain

A man in his 20s showed up to a UK hospital with the hilt of a knife sticking out of his face. The 15 mm blade hidden within went completely through his right eye and through his brain, with the tip of the blade hitting the top of his skull. Despite the ghastly injury, the man was alive and conscious when he arrived. He could still talk and move all four limbs. His doctors described him as being in a state of agitation. On the Glasgow Coma...

2 min read1
Starlink Mobile: All the news on SpaceX’s major mobile carrier ambitions
The Verge Techabout 2 hours ago

Starlink Mobile: All the news on SpaceX’s major mobile carrier ambitions

SpaceX has declared that it’s going to make Starlink Mobile a “major” mobile carrier. The Elon Musk-owned company has already deployed thousands of direct-to-cell satellites, but its next big challenge is building out its 5G network here on Earth. As part of its plans to rival AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, SpaceX has inked a deal with Qualcomm, which will deploy its cellular technology across tens of thousands of 5G cell sites starting in...

5 min read1